Slow wireless connect during startup

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sabian Smith
  • Start date Start date
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Sabian Smith

Vista startup is delayed by about 50 seconds due to (I think) slow
startup of the Wiresless network connection (which otherwise works well).

The desktop/sidebar appears reasonably fast (about 45 seconds from BIOS),
but after the sidebar appears there is a 50 second delay with NO disk
activity. During this time, it appears the service WORKSTATION is trying to
load ("Starting.."). It finally starts after 50 seconds, and the rest of the
startup process finishes.

During this pause, the "Network" icon in System Tray (2 computers) has a red
X, then a yellow exclamation, and about a 60-90 secs later finally the
planet symbol
and a working internet connection. I suspect this slow wireless connection
is delaying the Workstation Service startup? Any ideas why the wifi takes so
long to connect during bootup? Any way to further debug to isolate problem?

System Setup:
-Vaio SZ6 Santa Rosa laptop with Intel 4965AGN (80211b/g/n)
-Vista Business 32 bit, local workgroup over LAN
-D-Link (DI624) router, dynamic DHCP, connected to cablemodem.
-No difference in delay using static IP assignment
-WPA/PSK security
-NIC not allowed to connect to "alternative SSID"
-Up to date Vista, Intel NIC drivers, router firmware.
 
I did a little more debugging.

During the startup pause when the Network icon is red "x" or yellow "!" ,
Network & Sharing Center shows the Network icon stuck at "Identifying..
Public network" until FINALLY it shows my SSID and the link to the Planet
"Internet". For some reason it is taking a long time to connect to the
Wifi SSID, even though the router log shows almost instant
connection/authentication.

I ran a BOOT LOG. All drivers loaded EXCEPT:
Did not load driver \systemroot\system32\drivers\srv.sys
Did not load driver \systemroot\system32\drivers\parport.sys

Is this related?
 
I have hit a dead end. For some reason only the WiFi connection a long time
to establish connection during Vista startup. This same laptop has a
wired-LAN adapter - when I boot using this, startup flies and there is no
delay "identifying.." the network.

Can anyone help me with this.. where should I start (debug, logging etc) to
find out why the wifi takes so long to establish initial connection? It is
an Intel 4965AGN WiFi Adapter.
 
I'm having a similar problem - I'm running Vista Home Premium, and my startup
hangs for about the same amount of time, if not a little longer - and I just
discovered in the ntbtlog.txt file the following liine:

Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\srv.sys

It's the ONLY driver that did not load. I think there's something related
here.

It reminds me of Windows 98 when it had a similar problem trying to located
networks at bootup and would hang forever.

I'm already craving SP1 for Vista. UGH.
 
I am also having the same problem. I have no idea what to do to fix it, but
it is very annoying. When I first boot up this computer, it will open
Windows fine but then everything grinds to a halt as soon as the wireless
icon pops up on the bottom right of the screen. My virus scan (McAfee 8.5i
Enterprise Edition) gets a small red stop circle over it and my system will
sit there for about 90 seconds with no activity. During this time the
wireless icon has a small red x over it as well. I turned on the CPU widget
to see what my system is doing and it just sits at 0% activity. After 90
seconds or so, the virus scan software will start working and the wireless
will then switch from a small red x to a little yellow triangle with an
exclamation point. After about 30 or so more seconds, the wireless will then
start working. I have plugged this computer in via ethernet cable and it
does not have any of these delays when booting up. I just find this very
annoying and hope that someone can tell me a solution. For the record, the
only software I have installed on here other than just the Windows Vista Home
Premium software itsself is the following:
Adobe Reader 8
Becker CPA Review 2007
DAEMON Tools
Google Earth
Itunes/Quicktime
McAfee Virus Scan Enterprise Edition 8.5i
and Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition

All software is up to date and I have defragmented and done all maintenance
as of Wednesday. Any help with this issue would be great.

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/3130/vistabootsa0.jpg
 
Same issue, running Vista Ultimate 64bit on a Clevo Santa Rosa laptop. The
same issue started happening to me on another laptop, a Vestal Santa rosa
laptop running VHP 32bit. Both these laptops were equiped with Intel AGN
internal wifi cards. I'm dual booting xp on the Clevo and there are no issues
there, the wifi connects immediatly after startup.

Here's what happens: Vista boots, and soon after the login screen the icons
start loading and from that moment I can do pretty much anything exept
accesing the internet and opening any of the mobility center's options. I
can't change the power mode, open the mob. center shortcut window, access the
Network and Sharing center, etc... During this time the network symbol has a
red cross over it. after about 30-50 secs he acceses my home network or
whatever network i'm around and everything opens. On the Vestal, sometimes
the Mobility center itself crashed during startup, especially if I started
accesing it.

It looks like it the mobility center that's hanging while something loads.
Maybe the process mentioned above?
 
I meant to mention this in my previous post, but I am using Windows Vista
Home Premium 32-bit on my iMac. My iMac has a 1.83 ghz Core Duo, 2 gigs of
ram, ATI X1600 128 mb video card, 150 gig hd, 802.11 a/b/g wireless card,
gigabit ethernet card. What brought this to my attention was the fact that I
bought a Linksys router so that I could get my Nintendo Wii online. I
figured since I was going to use the router for the Wii, I might as well use
it for my computer as well. I had my iMac plugged in straight from the cable
modem previously but am now using a WPA secure wireless connection. This
issue started once I started using wireless versus being plugged in. Also, I
have noticed that this issue only occurs during a cold boot. If I cold boot
Vista, the computer will hang similar to what everyone else hasa mentioned
previously but if I simply restart it will not hang upon reboot. I don't
know what could cause this, but I'm hope it is something that Microsoft is
aware of. For the record, I tested the OS X install on my iMac with the
wireless connection and it has no problems upon bootup.
 
I am having the same problem as all of you, with Vista home premium and an HP
labtop pavillion dv6000 and linksys wireless router. Once connected,
everything works fine and is fast. Basically, I have to log into windows,
and leave the computer sitting there for about 2 minutes until it makes the
wireless connection. Sometimes, I can log into the router and release and
renew the DHCP assignment and that seems to help, but otherwise no real
solution. Hope someone comes up with a solution...
 
Surprising to see so many folks still having this problem 4 weeks after my
original post, an no solutions/suggestions from microsoft. The slow to
establish network connection problem is not unique to wireless. I just
purchased a new desktop that is hard-wired into my same router, and low and
behold after a couple weeks it too is having the slow network connect issue!

What router are you guys using ? I have a D-Link DI624. Perhaps it is a
router issue but I doubt it
 
I don't believe that is the issue, because the hangup of the Mobile Center
(or maybe just the Network and Sharing Center) happens regardless of there
being an wireless network around or not. You touched another issue though. I
think in both my experiences this started a few days/weeks after booting
Vista for the 1st time.
 
I am also having the exact same issue on a new Hp 9620NR Vista 32bit.
It takes 4 ever to lode the wireless, I have disable the HP wireless
assistant and HP advisory and it sped it up a bit but it still takes
a good 40 sec to 2 min to connect. Its always at the identifying
network

I am having the same problem as all of you, with Vista home premium and an HP
labtop pavillion dv6000 and linksys wireless router. Once connected,
everything works fine and is fast. Basically, I have to log into windows,
and leave the computer sitting there for about 2 minutes until it makes the
wireless connection. Sometimes, I can log into the router and release and
renew the DHCP assignment and that seems to help, but otherwise no real
solution. Hope someone comes up with a solution...
Click to expand...


I
 
I solved the problem on my computer. I don't know if this was the main cause
or what, but I uninstalled iTunes yesterday evening and this morning when I
turned on my computer there was no delay in recognizing the wireless
connection. iTunes ran like crap on Vista, so I decided to nix it. When I
say I uninstalled iTunes, I mean I really uninstalled it. I uninstalled the
main program, went in and cleaned out any registry entries, deleted the
hidden folder in user data, etc. I have turned the computer on and off 3 or
4 times now and it works like a charm.
 
I solved the problem on my computer. I don't know if this was the main cause
or what, but I uninstalled iTunes yesterday evening and this morning when I
turned on my computer there was no delay in recognizing the wireless
connection. iTunes ran like crap on Vista, so I decided to nix it. When I
say I uninstalled iTunes, I mean I really uninstalled it. I uninstalled the
main program, went in and cleaned out any registry entries, deleted the
hidden folder in user data, etc. I have turned the computer on and off 3 or
4 times now and it works like a charm.
Click to expand...

Having exactly the same issue here as many of you described. In
response to mbushnell's suggestion, sadly no iTunes to be uninstalled
here!

It's very quick to re-establish a wireless connection from standby but
very slow from cold boot (timings same as many of you listed).

Is it just me or does it seem that issue only really reared it's head
over the past month or so? I'm wondering if it's related to one of
the Microsoft Updates that went out.

I've also had issues with my Bluetooth device not working properly
after coming out of hibernate - it can see my phone but says the
virtual COM port is in use - a reboot cures it but this is a bit of a
pain given the problems above re. slow boot times.

Cheers

Alan
 
I have the same problem too. Windows Vista Ultimate (clean install) running on:

Intel Motherboard - DP35DP (BIOS v. 0297)
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6850
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT
2 x Hitachi HDT725050VLA360 500GB drives (Raid0)
Philips DVD RW 416
D-Link Air Plus DWL-G520 wireless Revision B2 F/W 3.1.6
4 x Corsair 1GB DDR2 800MHz Dimms

One other symptom I have observed is that anything requiring UAC
authorisation will hang until the network connection becomes available.

Mine has had the red cross on the network connection from the clean
installation, the only difference now is that I can't open Internet Explorer
until the cross disappears and the globe appears. I could do this at first, I
suspect on of the updates has "fixed" this.
 
I shortened the time by unchecking "Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder"

From "Network and Sharing Center" select "Manage network connections" and
then right-click on "Wireless Network Connection..." and select properties.

Secondly I setup Machine-Authentication using a slightly modified version of
these instructions:
http://www.id.ethz.ch/about/sections/kom/dkid/themas/config-1x/vista-config_EN

More samples of machineOrUser authentication

Here's a sample XML file from MSFT:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa369539.aspx

And here's the command to import the file:
C:\>netsh wlan add profile filename="<file name and path here>.xml"
 
if you think it was one of the updates, uninstall them and reinstall
one by one until you find the one that causes the issue. OR try a
restore point to a time before this set of updates and then use
"Custom" to install them one at a time until you find the one that
causes the problem.

Was there ever a resolution to this?

I just started experiencing this today on my Vista Business x64
installation. The network card is a Linksys WMP54GS. I've had this
installation for almost 6 months now, and up until a few days ago this
problem was non-existant. The wireless connection was made and the
taskbar icon was showing a "globe" as soon as the desktop appeared.
Now, however, I get the red cross for over a minute now after the
desktop appears.

It's not a *huge* problem as the connection is still made when the
desktop is first shown, so I can open Firefox and do everything else
online that I need to before the network connection status is updated,
but as mentioned, anything that would normally require UAC privileges or
access to any system settings (like opening Control Panel) just freezes
until the network status is updated. That's what gets annoying to me.

Since it just started happening a few days ago, I'm thinking it has to
be a result of a Microsoft patch. I don't use Vista very often, so when
I booted it a few days ago, there were several available "Important"
patches which I installed. It seems like it started to happen around
that time.
Click to expand...
--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
 
sometimes AV software can cause issues like this. AV updates on a
machine that was previously running fine could definitely be
suspect. disabling network scan on startup and so on could help
diagnose if this is the issue.

you say you rolled back to a known good configuration - was this
done with system restore? how far back did you roll back to and did
you disable automatic updates when you did this?

Unfortunately, rolling back to a known good configuration does not
resolve the problem.

Like Sabian Smith mentioned in his original post, its somehow related
to the Workstation service. If I disable this service and reboot, the
problem goes away. However, it does not seem to be a matter of slow
access to the network, as I have full internet access at full speed
during the time when the startup is "frozen" waiting for the Workstation
service. I am just unable to access any system components, like Control
Panel, Network and Sharing Center, and anything that would require UAC
acceptance.

What are the cases that can cause the Workstation service to take over
a minute to startup? Are there any configuration settings for it that
might alleviate this somewhat?

For now, I can just leave the service disabled, but I would like to
find a solution to this as I do use SMB file/printer sharing here at
home with other machines.

I know this isn't a critical issue like not being able to boot, but
it's still an annoyance.
Click to expand...
--

Barb Bowman
MS Windows-MVP
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx
http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/
 
This issue seems to have been at least partially resolved after the latest
patches. While the network center still hangs and the icon show no connection
you can acess the internet right after startup.
Good enough for me I guess.
 
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